Long before the Turkmen weaving tradition was
destroyed examples such as these were made. Their production was solely motivated
within the narrow and strict confines of a highly structured clan-based society.
This much can be interpreted from the small number of travel accounts dating
from the 11th to the 19th centuries that are available
for reference. Perhaps the most famous is Marco Polo’s wherein the explorer
described the carpets of Turkmenistan as "…the finest in the world."
Unfortunately none of these accounts, including Marco Polo’s, provides any
direct information about the designs or the sources for the designs found
on the weavings he, or a number of other writers and travelers, actually saw.
This lack of provenance also prevents determining the exact age of any Turkmen
weaving.

Topics of provenance or dating will not be directly addressed
in this text and the commonly accepted attributions will be used and not questioned
or discussed. The matter of dating will, however, be handled a bit differently.
Almost all Turkmen weavings can be accurately separated into smaller quite
specific groupings based on comparison of their structural techniques, materials,
dyes and designs. Based on these factors, they can then be placed into a chronological
continuum of four successive weaving periods. The Plates and the other examples
illustrated in this exhibition have been dated according to this process and,
while only answering the dating question in the broadest terms, this method
nevertheless provides the least speculative and most viable answer to this
question.

Examples from the first or archaic period were the archetypes
from which all other similar but later weavings of each specific group have
been derived. The best were the products of an archaic nomadic lifestyle and
they have always been extremely rare. As a group and individually they demonstrate
direct connection to the historic weaving culture of the Turkmen. The next
or classic period were made during a transition stage, when the archaic culture
of the nomad began to change in response to increased inter-group conflict
and reorganization as well as other unknown factors. These weavings frequently
synthesized features found in the archaic period by the omission, addition,
simplification and recombination of earlier motif and pattern. These changes
more often than not created the hybrid types and styles that were reproduced
by the myriad of later examples from the next two weaving periods.

In the third or pre-conquest period, genuine examples of Turkmen
weaving were still produced but these lack any real connection to the historic
weaving culture. They were only reflective of it and in general were purely
decorative objects no longer actually expressing cultural history or identity.
Many of these were made for market or only as portable wealth. The weavings
of the last or colonial period utilize low-grade materials, synthetic colors
and foreign designs - the three main factors that signaled the complete destruction
of the Turkmen weaving culture's raison d'être.

Examples from the archaic and classic periods are the only
ones illustrated in this exhibition, as its focus is exclusively concentrated
on the earliest representative weavings. These important examples and others
like them have survived without any supporting ethnographic data and, therefore,
it is only the weavings themselves that can grant us any chance to understand
the beginnings of this weaving culture and the historic period during which
it developed.

What little is known about this time-period supports the conclusion
that foreign religious, social and economic pressures had yet to penetrate
the weaving traditions of these archaic groups. Deep significance was attached
to these weavings by a culture that demanded their use and recognition. They
were not merely decorative accessories to a lifestyle as they eventually would
become for most village groups of Turkmen by the 19th century, but rather
significant cultural artifacts that were determinants of an archaic tradition
and lifestyle.

The earliest examples of engsi present the most archaic and
interesting visual iconography found on any type of Turkmen weaving. Their
individual designs, symbols and icons are often the archetypes for those found
on other types of trappings, like chuvals and torbas, and naturally for those
found on the many later examples of engsi as well. All Turkmen groups made
engsi and each of the four examples shown in this exhibition, Plates 1-4,
individually demonstrates not only similarities but also the differences the
weavers of these various groups were able to express. These are the oldest
known examples of their respective types and this is the first time they have
been published.

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consent of the copyright holder, the Weaving Art Museum, Inc.